Searching for information is an important functionality of many information systems. In a clinical setting, the search process is usually limited to a particular time period; most often, the more recent documents and events in a patient file are more important than the older ones.
Some search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, provide a feature known as ‘autocompletion’. This feature processes the character string a user is typing in the search bar, and suggests potentially relevant search terms that start with these characters. These search terms are typically displayed in a menu below the search bar, to enable the user to easily select one search term of the displayed suggested search terms. When the user has selected such a search term, a new screen is displayed in which the search results for the selected search term are shown. However, the autocompletion suggestions provided by these known search engines can be in any of the documents in the database. Consequently, it is difficult for a user to guess the relevance of a search term suggested by the system.
In the clinical setting, the users frequently need to find documents in a patient file. Consequently, a search engine may be implemented that searches the documents in a particular patient file. Such a search engine may also display a list of suggested completions of a partially entered search term. Also in this setting, it is difficult to guess the relevance of the suggested search terms.
An example of a user interface of a search engine with autocompletion is shown in FIG. 2. The figure shows a search bar 315, known in the art per se, in which the user can enter characters of a search string 214. The system then shows a box 314 containing a list of suggestions to complete the search string 214.
“BrowseLine: 2D Timeline Visualization of Web Browsing Histories”, by O. Hoeber and J. Gorner, in: Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Visualisation, 2009, pages 156-161, hereinafter: Hoeber et al., discloses a visual interface for re-finding previously viewed Web pages in browsing histories. BrowseLine employs a two-dimensional timeline metaphor, allowing users to visually identify temporal patterns within their browsing histories. These visual patterns can be matched to the users' recollection of their browsing activities, allowing them to jump to a time interval in their browsing history for further investigation. When a user types a portion of a domain name in the appropriate filter textbox, a visual indication is provided to highlight those domains that match the filter. The matched domain stacks are rendered with a dark border, and all other domain stacks are faded away. The resulting effect is that the matched domains pop out of the display due to the high luminance contrast between foreground and background.